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I was doing some online searching on specific credit card options for US cards and noticed that:
* there are no annual fee Mastercards you can apply for (but these may have foreign transaction fees)
* there are no foreign transaction fee cards you can apply for - these are mostly Visa, with some American Express, and Discover. There are a small few for Mastercard, but there's an annual fee.
What I've not found is the combo of no foreign transaction fee + no annual fee Mastercard. Does such exist for the US? I found a Mastercard meeting that criteria earlier but it was for New Zealand.
I have the equivalent card for Visa, just looking to add a Mastercard to my wallet as well, as a backup. I noticed while traveling to Peru, that that country seems to favor Mastercard (in terms of the logos of cards accepted at merchants, no Visa logo was displayed).
I don't know. But my Amex cards have no foreign transaction fee (at least the platinum card doesn't) and I have my annual fees waived for as long as I have the job that I do.
I have multiple no-annual-fee MasterCards that have no foreign transaction fee. You aren't looking hard enough. Barclays has several that fit that criteria. On the other hand, don't ignore annual fee cards completely...sometimes the yearly travel rewards that come with it are worth it...although those are usually Visa or Amex.
Bank of America has such a mastercard (with no foreign currency transactions fees). But one needs to request it as Bank of America also has a regular mastercard that does have foreign transaction fees. Both cards have no annual fees.
The Capital One cards, I believe, are all VISA branded cards except for the secured card which uscMC but doesn't fit the other requirements fir the OP.
I don't know. But my Amex cards have no foreign transaction fee (at least the platinum card doesn't) and I have my annual fees waived for as long as I have the job that I do.
I use my Capital One quicksilver mastercard for all my foreign transactions as it has no foreign transaction fee nor does it have an annual fee. It also gives 1.5% cash back on everything so it's the card I use the most. I have 4 cards I use regularly.
1) Capital One quicksilver with 1.5% cashback on everything
2) AMEX for Costco purchases
3) BOA with 3% cashback on gas, 2% on groceries, 1% everything else
4) Chase Freedom with 5% rotating categories cashback every quarter and 1% cashback on everything else.
None have any annual fees and with me using whatever gives me the most cashback I estimate I average about 2% cashback on all my purchases. Not a bad deal as I never pay interest or incur fees either.
Thanks for the responses, I'll look into the mentions on the Mastercard offerings.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Chava61
Bank of America has such a mastercard (with no foreign currency transactions fees). But one needs to request it as Bank of America also has a regular mastercard that does have foreign transaction fees. Both cards have no annual fees.
Chava61, do you recall what the exact card name was that one such Mastercard? So I know what to ask for, unless I find a helpful BofA rep who would be able to find it if I just say I wanted the no foreign transaction fee + no annual fee Mastercard.
I have multiple no-annual-fee MasterCards that have no foreign transaction fee. You aren't looking hard enough. Barclays has several that fit that criteria. On the other hand, don't ignore annual fee cards completely...sometimes the yearly travel rewards that come with it are worth it...although those are usually Visa or Amex.
Doing follow up research with what the website openly reveals, it looks like, at present, the Barclay cards that match my criteria are: Carnival World MasterCard, Barclaycard Ring MasterCard, Barclaycard Arrival World MasterCard.
But it's interesting when you look for the details, fine print, for foreign transaction (fee) it states "0% of each transaction in U.S. dollars", where the less detailed description on the site is "no/none foreign transaction fee". So either their copywriters/technical writers didn't do a good job of describing the feature (in the fine print) or they are being intentionally coy. Does "0% of each transaction in U.S. dollars" mean no fee if transaction made in US dollars only (and fee otherwise for other currency transactions) or does it mean you won't incur any fees billed to you as US dollars on foreign transactions regardless of currency transacted with? Guess I'll have to contact them to clarify.
In terms of looking hard enough, the Barclay card options didn't come up on a simple Google search for terms of "no annual fee, no transaction fee, Mastercard" mixed together. Either I didn't craft the right search query or it is not so easy to dig up. Only when I did add "Barclay" into the mix did I get more useful info and get me to where I wanted. Results for Visa on the other hand came up easily without mentioned Visa just the other 2 requirements in a search query.
Last edited by daluu; 12-26-2015 at 12:09 AM..
Reason: update & clarification
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